By: Celine Chin
Food is fundamental in providing us with nutrients, which are essential in order for us to be able to carry out regular body functions. One thing that regulates the food we eat is hunger, which helps us manage body weight and makes sure the body is supplied with enough nutrients. The portion sizes and types of food we eat are also factors that impact our body weight, and these are often changed by different situations.
There are several hormones that help the body regulate its appetite, including ghrelin, insulin, leptin, orexin, and peptide YY. Ghrelin is a hormone that signals hunger to the brain and is mainly secreted in the stomach. If you are not eating enough, ghrelin levels would increase and conversely decrease if you are eating too much. The second hormone in this list is insulin, which is secreted by the pancreas and controls blood glucose, in addition to regulating the metabolism of nutrients like carbohydrates and proteins. Insulin also helps store glucose in the body. Moving on, leptin is an appetite suppressor secreted by fat cells that tells the brain that there is a sufficient amount of energy stored to carry out certain processes like puberty and pregnancy. Generally, the amount of fat you have and the amount of leptin in your blood have a direct relationship. The more fat in your body, the more leptin in your blood. The fourth item in this list is orexin, which is secreted by the hypothalamus. It serves many purposes in the body, but one of the main ones is to carry out its role in triggering hunger. Lastly, peptide YY is secreted in the small intestine when food is present in the digestive tract. The amount that is released is dependent on how many calories were consumed. Eating foods with more calories results in more peptide YY being released compared to foods with less calories. This hormone has the job of decreasing appetite after eating. Without all of these hormones helping regulate hunger, the body wouldn’t be able to control its food intake.
Some other things that affect body weight are genes, environment, and hormones. While it is possible to lose weight, it can be quite difficult to because our bodies have a determined body weight that is set in our genes. Whenever we go above or below that weight, our bodies fight to go back to it. For example, when we fast, our metabolism rate drops to try and save energy and we may experience hunger pangs. However, some researchers believe that the “settling point” theory better explains body weight. This theory suggests that where a person’s weight settles depends on things like food choice, biological traits, and other environmental factors. If that theory has truth behind it, that would mean a person’s settling point isn’t only dependent on genetic factors.
Certain situations can also control our eating habits. For example, being stressed or feeling depressed can lead us to crave foods high in carbohydrates, like ice cream. This is because carbohydrates can boost serotonin levels, which is a neurotransmitter that has a calming effect on the body. Unit bias, the tendency to want to finish one task no matter the size, also affects eating. We can end up eating more than we should if the portion size of our meal is too large because being able to finish the entire plate is satisfying. In the past, eating a variety of foods and obtaining a wide range of nutrients has helped our ancestors stay healthy. That’s why having more variety in foods available, like in a buffet, also makes us eat more. Another factor that makes us eat more is whether we are eating alone or with a group. When we eat in groups, we end up eating more than usual because there is often more food that is available when we eat with others. As a result, we are given the opportunity to overindulge in this setting.
Ultimately, there is much more to body weight than just the amount of food that is being eaten. If we’re trying to lose weight, it often isn’t enough just trying to eat a significantly smaller or bigger amount of food because our bodies often try to stop us from doing so. Body weight is instead determined by both biological and social factors.
Questions
Q: What are the appetite hormones?
A: The five appetite hormones are ghrelin, insulin, leptin, orexin, and peptide YY. Ghrelin is released by the stomach and tells the brain to eat. Insulin is released by the pancreas and controls blood glucose, and leptin is an appetite suppressor released by fat cells in the body. Orexin triggers hunger and is secreted by the hypothalamus, and peptide YY, which is released in the small intestine, decreases appetite.
Q: What are some situational influences on eating?
A: Being stressed or depressed can lead us to eat comfort foods high in carbohydrates, as carbohydrates boost serotonin levels, which can help calm us. Having a bigger portion size, more variety of foods to choose from, and eating in a group can also lead us to be more likely to eat more and influence our body weight.
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No changes were made, File:People eating in Tunisia 2.JPG - Wikimedia Commons, License: Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-SA 4.0
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